The Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) has welcomed the Victorian Government’s Workplace Protection Order (WPO) legislation introduced into Parliament today, while warning that a commencement date of 26 July 2027 leaves frontline workers exposed for another twelve months.
AACS CEO Theo Foukkare said the scheme directly targets the problem members have been raising for years — the small number of repeat offenders who drive most incidents.
“Our members employ more than 20,000 frontline staff across Victoria, and the overwhelming majority of the interactions they have every day are perfectly normal,” Mr Foukkare said.
“But there is a hard core of repeat offenders who walk into the same store, week after week, because they know nothing happens to them.
A court order that bans them from the premises for up to 12 months, backed by two years’ imprisonment or a $50,000 fine, is exactly the kind of consequence that changes behaviour.”
Data from retail crime intelligence company Auror recorded 305,000 crime events across Victorian retailers in the last financial year, with one in ten involving violence or weapons.
“Three hundred and five thousand events in a single year, and one in ten of them violent or involving a weapon — that is the reality our teams are working in,” Mr Foukkare said.
“We are open when everything else is closed.
Our sites are often run by one or two people overnight, they hold cash, and they sit on main roads with easy vehicle access.
Victoria is by far the worst state in the country right now.
Verbal abuse, intimidation, organised theft groups and ram raids have gone from occasional to almost daily in some stores.”
AACS has identified three issues it will pursue with the Government as the Bill progresses:
- Commencement. A twelve-month lead time is too long.
AACS will seek an earlier start date, or a staged commencement for the highest risk site types.
- Who can apply. The Bill allows listed retail and transport operators and employee unions to apply to the Magistrates’ Court.
AACS will seek confirmation that petrol and convenience sites — including franchisees and independent single site operators — are captured, and that a small operator can access the scheme.
- Practical access. A court application process must be workable for a business owner running one or two stores, not just for national chains with legal teams.
“These laws are strong on paper and we welcome that.
What matters now is enforcement and access — if the only businesses that can realistically use a WPO are the big end of town, we will have missed the people who need it most,” Mr Foukkare said.
“Everyone deserves to go home safe at the end of a shift.
Our members have invested heavily in CCTV, lighting, ANPR and de-escalation training.
Industry is doing its part.
This legislation is Government doing its part, and we want it working sooner than next July.”
Theo Foukkare is available for interview on 0423 003 133
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